Without a doubt, Roy Cram turns out adventures which are, at once, tense AND funny. Take 'Balloonka,' for instance. The names of the places and creatures of this world invite chuckles and groans. And yet this is one of the deadliest adventures a player character could experience! If you doubt it's that serious, examine the challenging cover by the always perfect Jeff Freels. If ever a couple of spacemen (women?) thought they were in control of a situation....

It's an old-fashioned party killer, with a thin veil of science fiction to trick us into thinking we know what's going on. As far as the characters are concerned, a formerly-wealthy employer (Roy calls him Victor...I dunno about that.) had to abandon his colony and trade with a world that was literally dripping with riches. Less than eleven years ago, Victor was about to become the most wealthy individual in known space. And then something went wrong.

His fortune dissapated, cut off from his prize (by a "local" war in that sector), he's either hocked everything or else has found backers. Victor wants his world back. But he needs a band of adventurers, bold and tough. In short, he needs YOU and your friends. What? You thought the old fat guy was gonna pilot a ship AND fight the planet's --- um, he would go quiet at that point, and wild horses can't drag further information from him.

But you and your companions are just bold enough and dumb enough - as well as broke - to take on this Herculean task. Thank goodness you had all believed in the ancient legends, which state that the richest adventures will walk up to you, if you hang around in a tavern long enough.

Can't be too tough. You and your fellow adventurers smile at the recordings of the first colony's distress calls, complaining that the local plants grew fast - very fast. They must have been cowards, to fear plants that grow extra fast. The famine worlds could certainly pay well for samples of such vegetation.

And as the spaceship comes into orbit near your destination, your group dons body armor and twelve different kinds of guns. With a smirk, you each enter the shuttle, and think how easy it will be to remove gold and gems from an uninhabited planet.

I was that smirking character, and within 24 hours, my entire party was dead.

This is one time when brevity really does work. This is a snapshot of a smaller city, without the detail of a City-State of the Invincible Overlord (CSoIO). It isn't meant to have that much detail, though you're certainly welcome to add detail, a map, etc. A map would have been a Very Good Thing, but for this price I'm not gonna complain about it.

Like every Tunnels & Trolls adventure I've ever seen, you only use six-sided dice. Except for page 9 - where you'll use two three-sided dice. (That is, roll two D6 and divide each one in half.) There's a slight typo on this page: 2D3 will give a range of 2-6, not 1-6. This roll will determine the class or job of the local residents. Therefore, since a one cannot be rolled, there are no citizens in Lowhollow.

Getting spells is easier on Tom's world that in the Trollworld of the TnT 7.5 rulebook. Maybe that will change with Deluxe TnT? If your wizards want to stock up and/or recover, this is a town worth a detour.

There are no adventures, per se. Adventure hooks aplenty. For instance, random scenario #12 is a REAL pain for PCs, and can lead to a geas, a job, a curse, or a jail sentence. Or worse. You have to try this! Because the justice system (i.e. - the GM punishes you for whatever he or she wants) is totally unfair and the punishment probably far exceeds the crime. In short, delightful and filled with adventure hooks.

It is only 18 pages, counting cover and title page, but don't consider this a short scenario. There is lots of replay value, and enough adventures to carry you through your old age. Perryton could do worse than expand this small (?) town into a CSoIO module, complete with map. On the other hand, I think I'm going to enjoy stocking it myself and drawing my own map.

Tunnels & Trolls has inspired a number of magazines over the years, and I've often been surprised at how good most of them are. In this, TnT has fared better than most game, and far better than the only rpg to get to market before it. (For the record, TnT was and is the first rpg which was designed AS a roleplaying game. See Jim Peters about this.)

Elder Tunnels is assuredly in the top 1 or 2 percent of these, offering, as it does, a smorgasbord. If one article doesn't please you, the next one will, and it is a rare issue (Can't think of one!) in which there isn't two or three things you'll find useful.

In the past, ET (I like that acronym!) has taken itself a bit seriously at time, but a sense of playfulness begins this issue, starting with an introduction that is as corny and enjoyable as Raymond Edward Johnson. (Inner Sanctum. Look it up.)

That corn was to, evidently, set us up for a shock! Two pages later, we are treated to what could easily be a chilling Call of Cthulhu adventure. The antagonist, who is also our protagonist of the story, is a combination of Lennie Small (Of Mice & Men) and Jason (Friday the infinite-numbers), and one can't help but feel sorry for the guy. With little difficulty, this scenario could provide real moral quandaries for the players. Roleplayers will thrill, yet there's enough action to satisfy the most hacker-type of player. Kudos to David Moskowitz for a great plot and follow-through, and to Christopher Lee Rowan for a funny-until-you-look-at-it portrait of a truly suspenseful scene. This is an adventure which proves the versatility of TnT, for it can be played in any time period, any place, from TnT's usual fantasy setting to a modern - or even future - environment.

"The Bone Lords," Tom Loney informs us, "are beings of loathsome, evil vileness so despicable that the softness that was their living flesh has been discarded ages past." If THAT doesn't send a cold shiver up your spine, the sight of one just might. For such a terrifying new monster (Its monster rating STARTS at 100!) it was surprising that all the information fit on one page. Score another point for TnT's system, which allows stats to be kept short, and the verbosity to be used on flavor.

"Woe Hounds" by Jerry Teleha takes a few more pages - but then, there is more than one hound. Woe Hounds are the demonic terrors that the Hound of the Baskervilles could only pretend to be. Jerry's description, and Mike Hartlieb's illustration, should frighten the wits out of your players. Perhaps it's time for a statistic such as Sanity or Fear to be introduced into TnT. (Something like it was written in the late, lamented Sorcerer's Apprentice magazine."

Solo adventures have been TnT's meat & potatoes since Buffalo Castle, and "Curse of the 3-Eyed Stone" by David Crowell does not disappoint. (We could, I suppose, have a TnT magazine without a solo, but why would we want to?) Like many solos, you're railroaded into a specific character type. If we fault this solo for that, we have to fault most of them, so let's not bother. Because the adventure is quite good, and the solo prompts you with real personality traits for this thief you are to play. Clues, puzzles, and violence are anticipated, and it doesn't let us down. Care and cleverness is called for, because it seems everything that exists is powerful enough to squash you like a bug. The illustration by Mr Rowan indicates a Chinese setting (At least that LOOKS like Zhongwen to me. It could be Hangul, which would make it Korean.) yet there's nothing stopping you from imagining it in any locale. I played it as if I was Slate Shannon (played by Humphrey Bogart in Bold Venture) and it works fine. I would've paid the six bucks for this alone!

Sadly, I end giving short shrift to more art throughout the magazine, and a really nice cover. Peryton is classy and kind, in that they include a "printer friendly" PDF along with the regular version, which will eat up black ink like mad.

And speaking of "mad," the adventures in this issue really could drive adventurers into insanity. Yes, we really do need to decide how to handle stress in TnT. Because I, a nastymean GM, homerule that if it entertains me, my players go insane.

A short and direct campaign (It's much more than one adventure!) description which can last as long and as far as you want. Player characters can be entirely non-adventure types - as a matter of fact, this was written specifically for the Citizen class in T&T. The Citizen class being the class of an average serf or wanderer who has no really useful adventurer skills to speak of.

It concerns time travel caused by a blend of magic and tech. This time, in this setting, it seems to work - and it all but demands sequels and fictional stories.

You'll probably want to change some things (probably different things than I would) and expand it in one direction for another. The protagonist, or "mover" of the story is easily turned into an NPC or a player character. Either choice will lead to entirely different adventures and dynamics, probably on an individual basis. This character can be key to the direction the plot(s) will take. And there's nothing to say that this character couldn't have had - urr, ehm - companions arrive with him. Therefore the players can play citizens native to the future environment, or citizens from...some earlier time. This, again, can be adapted by the GM; in my game, it starts on 21st century Earth.

And there's nothing which says this "mover" must survive, either! I keep thinking what sort of improvisational events would occur if Dave Arneson was running this.

This is a delightful adventure for T&T, and - with expansions - it could be as popular as once was Greyhawk. This time, for T&T.

But, yes -- it does need expansion. And sequels. And maybe a series of short stories.

A solid hit. It's going over the center fielder's head! It's going - it's going!! It's GONE, right out of the park!! A solid HOME RUN!!

Sequels are rarely as good as the originals. Hardly ever do they TOP the original! I can only think of two in the movie field: Bride of Frankenstein and Spider-Man 2. As for games, there's this, the sideways-sort of sequel to the Gamesmen of Kasar - and a partial answer to the riddle of what IS the motivation of these Gamers? And who are they?

You're a person of some note in this solo. That is, you're of interest to the government (such as it is) of the planet, and they'd just as soon jettison you into the nearest star. But if you can solve the problem/mystery of why the bizarre building, which houses an arena or something (No one really knows.) has gone berzerk and sent out robots to kidnap citizens -- well, that's just unseemly! And the robots and building being impregnable to their enforcement agents -- that's a disaster in the making!

So you courageously (?) walk up to the entrance, announce yourself as another of the many who used to play their game in their arena, and wait to be show in --

To what?

Robots, aliens, monsters, and a big honking -- no, I shan't reveal it. But one of the most glorious of the classic monsters can be yours for the low, low price of taking the wrong turn.

And you've got to love Jeff's art - If H.P. Lovecraft merged with Earl Otis and had a pawkish sense of humor, this is the art he'd create. To make it even more bizarre, Jeff is blind - and still one of the best artists in the business.

This solo opens up what may be a campaign, and delivers more mystery even as it answers some of the mystery of the Kasar solo.

Roy Cram has been absent from adventure creating for far too long! His return with "When Good Games Go Bad" has us excited for further adventures in this series.

If I had any complaint at all, it would be that this is too short. Ken's Trollworld is so different from other RPG milieux that it entertains the reader and chills the player. Hobbs are not the charming hobbits you're used to, neither are the the stereotypical thieves other games have offered. And that's just one example! Richly developed, with enough left open for the creative gamesmaster, Trollworld comes alive as completely as Glorantha or Middle Earth ever did. Yet by some clever work by Ken, this book enables you to make Trollworld uniquely your own.

I bought this book thinking it was a part of the Spacer scenarios, which I have been waiting for for a very long time. Alas, it wasn't, but it was still an interesting read. I have to admit that I've played Spacers and T&T with the book's author, and you can call me a fan of his already.
The book is for the Tunnels and Trolls system, which I am not overly fond of; but Loney's passion for it always infects his audience. And I found while digging through this campaign's passages that his enthusiasm draws me into it again.
There is some awful editing, but I am not one to get overly critical about that when it comes to game writing. Editors cost money!
I believe that most of the artwork is original. The cover by Simon Lee Tranter and interior work by Mike Hartlieb were my favorites.

Some call it D20 Light. Some gripe that it's so much like OD&D that they can get OD&D clones for free.

Bah!

I call it Light, all right -- Light hearted and fun! What gives PFRPG its edge, is the fun and almost-whimsical tone of the writing. The style is friendly and encourages reading.

As to playing -- Well, a lot of people like the Knacks. It's a good skill system which doesn't go off into Feat-land, a place which still gives me shudders! The various classes are fun - there are some which are significantly strange that I'd love to play them.

There are some quibbles with realism. My experience is that a person in combat who goes berserk is going to take MORE damage, not less. That's why we trained so thoroughly, so that when a panic situation occurred, we would NOT go berserk. Trust me, I've seen people (fortunately, very few) who "lost it" and became real machines of destruction -- but left their defenses wide open.

I could see this ruleset encouraging good roleplaying and well-structured adventures. Unfortunately for me, I really can't see myself using PFRPG when my two favorite FRPGs (Castles & Crusades and Tunnels & Trolls) cover everything I want or need in a fantasy RPG. There's nothing here to really pull me away from either of those two. And nobody's selling extra hours for the day or extra days for the week....

If you haven't found your perfect rolegame yet, or if you're willing to try something new, you could do worse than try this game. Unlike most rulesets, it's fun to read. And you might get a few good ideas from it, even if you never actually play it as written.

Difficult to review this, as the author has proved hostile to criticism or reviews. Let's just say that Starfaring is a much superior version of Tunnels & Trolls in Space (and there's rumor of another T&T in Space RPG besides NK and Starfaring) and worth hunting down. (If FBI would think about it, they'd turn it into a PDF and sell it here.)

Starfaring permitted - DEMANDED - that one use one's imagination to fill in the blanks to create something unique. New Khazan's background has the feeling of having been there and done that. Derivative without being interesting, I couldn't recommend it.

A weak entry for a weak game. We're not sure if it's because of its sketchiness or because it feels like one has to follow a certain track to "win." Any time a rolegame has a clear "win" pattern, it makes it difficult for players to come up with their own ideas and determine their characters' fates.

It's very short - way too short for the plot. It's funny - the Keith brothers were able to pack a LOT of story in a very small amount of words in their Traveller adventures. Not too many people seem able to do that. I'm a fan of minimalism, but the writer seems to want the gamesmaster to do ALL the work.

This might have been fine as a short adventure within a magazine, but it utterly fails on its own. Even at a buck-fifty, it seems overpriced.

Have to agree. Poorly written and overpriced. Playable, barely, but why bother when there are so many alternatives which are superior? BRP, of course, comes to mind, but there have been so many GOOD pulp RPGs, why bother with such a weak entry? At best, incomplete and hacked out over a weekend. This has been scrubbed from my tablet.

I've always loved superheroes and comics, and even though I'm older than dirt, I still read them. Kinda wanted to be a comics writer, but I don't think I have the stamina for it. Writers have to come up with new and better stories all the time, and I only come up with stories a few times a year--maybe once, maybe twice, but the good stories seem pretty far apart.

First Team is a good story, but it's trivial. That's okay. Every story shouldn't be about saving the planet. Some of them should just be the everyday escapades of the characters. That's what this is. A buddy story, and a team-up story, and a fight story. It's the origin story of Captain Scrappy and the Mangod. It's amusing. Told mostly in conversation, the story moves right along. I enjoyed it.

So, why didn't it get a 5 star rating? Two things pulled the story down, imho. There were quite a few typos--as a guy who makes plenty of typos myself I can understand how they might slip through. Spell checkerswoundn't catch them. Secondly, I wanted more art. The one piece on the cover is flat, black and white that any non-artist could do. I'm sure glad this 20 page story was marked down from $15 million dollars to a buck and a half. And Peryton Press didn't bother to make a real book or even magazine out of it. No front and back cover. No title page. Even is my light reading, I'm old and crotchety enough that I like things to conform to the proper Forms. I thought this was a book, but it was only a short story. Small disappointment.

If you like superheroes with a bit of humor thrown in, you'll like Tom's story.

Most excellent! Tom's ripe imagination draws us into the classic tale of the Time Machine, T&T-style! Plenty of background detail and story elements to give it structure, yet plenty of room for a GM to mold this into his own unique adventure, or even a campaign. Anyone familiar with the original tale will feel right at home, and if not, no fear, there is still fun aplenty. Five stars for bringing a steam-punk sci-fi classic to T&T7.5, and for providing a platform for exploring the underrated Citizen character type.